Originally Posted by
Excargodog
Alcohol burns off at a rate of .016 BAC per hour, or about one average drink per hour. This rate is pretty standard regardless of your weight.
If the blood alcohol test of 0.015 was taken five hours after his scheduled flight, then it would almost certainly been between 0.09 and 0.10 when he showed up for duty. Unless, that is, he continued to drink AFTER he was detained.
I don't know that the law allows them to infer or extrapolate backwards like that. It might, not sure.
The way I think that it works is that they can only hold you responsible for what you actually tested at, not what it could have potentially been prior to the test.
The sticking point that I think they are trying to make here is that the BAC rate between the breathalyzer and blood test doesn't line up... meaning the breathalyzer was in error (which is more common than one might think).
Yeah this guy should have called in sick or had a little less to drink or stopped drinking sooner... that would have avoided the entire mess. However I think his claim here may have merit.